Fed Uni reinstates Bachelor of Arts

Cereal Lab closed permanently

Roisin Murphy reports.

The University of Sydney Union (USU) has permanently closed its only breakfast-specific food outlet, Cereal Lab.

The outlet previously sat next to the Footbridge Theatre, adjacent to Courtyard, occupying some of the USU’s most prime real estate. Most famous for the mould-covered breakfast cereal that filled its sign, Cereal Lab was a humble idea with unfortunate brand management.

USU President, Cole Scott-Curwood, explained to Honi that Cereal Lab was opened through a sponsorship in 2020. According to What’s New in Food Technology Manufacturing Magazine (real publication), the idea behind Cereal Lab was to “provide students with breakfast bowls and enable Kellogg’s to experiment with innovations”. Unfortunately, it was difficult to “provide” students with breakfast bowls when basic prices often leaned into the double digits.

History Honours student, Felix Faber, reached out to Honi with his concern about the closure. “I went into the Holme Building looking for a bowl of Froot Loops. Unfortunately, as I soon found out [about the closure], the only thing on the menu for me that afternoon was a heaping bowl of disappointment… But I knew that Cereal Lab wouldn’t want me to cry because it was over, so I chose to smile because it happened.”

And it’s true; in mourning Cereal Lab, the heartbreak is not for what we lost, but for what could have been. We know that in Australia, at least one in seven uni students – likely more – will regularly skip a meal for financial reasons, creating immense disparities in wellbeing, health and academics. Footbridge is a thoroughfare for undergrads. It’s easy to presume that Cereal Lab would have hundreds of students pass by each day, and, statistically speaking, many of them would likely be without breakfast. If Kellogg’s really wanted to reach a large number of people with their cereal, and if the USU wanted to uphold its role as a “student union”, why not provide cereal for free?

Scott-Curwood noted that this gap has been filled by the SRC and USU’s joint free food venture, FoodHub, which provides students with non-perishables and is open from 10am-2pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in level 4 of the Wentworth Building. “Cereal lovers need not despair, the SRC x USU Foodhub is currently stocking cereal, milk, and many other food items”, he told Honi. While the FoodHub is a welcome and crucial service, the location – tucked away in Wentworth – is out of the way from where most students frequent, meaning most don’t know of its existence. It also unfortunately does not provide single serve meals for people on the way to class. This is not to place extensive criticism on the Foodhub, but in order to operate at their best, such services also need to be proactive in reaching students. It’s not always enough to stock boxes of cereal in the back of one of the University’s least frequented buildings – you should also provide people with a pre-class feed as they get off the bus.

UniMelb NTEU serves Vice-Chancellor log of claims

Ellie Stephenson reports.

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has served the University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell with an “ambitious” log of claims as part of Enterprise Bargaining negotiations, according to a press release from the Union this morning.

The log of claims was approved last week at meetings attended by over 500 NTEU members.

The Union is demanding a pay rise of either 15 per cent by December 2024 or Consumer Price Index (CPI) + 1.5 per cent per annum, whichever is greater. This exceeds the pay increases achieved by staff at Western Sydney University earlier this month, which did not match inflation, but remains less than the USyd NTEU’s claim of CPI + 2.5 per cent per annum.

The log of claims also aims to limit the insecurity experienced by staff as a result of restructures. It calls for no forced redundancies and for no staff to be subjected to multiple workplace restructures over the lifetime of the agreement. NTEU UniMelb Branch President Annette Herrera described restructures in recent years as making “unnecessary cuts” to professional staff “to the detriment of all staff and the morale of our colleagues”.

Casualisation is unsurprisingly a key concern of UniMelb staff, particularly in the context of the Fair Work Ombudsman’s legal action, commencing today, against the University of Melbourne for wage theft from two casuals in the School of Education.

The Union is demanding at least 80 per cent of staff be enrolled in permanent roles, which Herrera described as “declaring war on the never ending short term contracts that keep so many of our staff on a never-ending hamster wheel of insecure work.”

As part of this demand, the log of claims advocates for casual contracts only being used for short term ad hoc work. It further calls for limitations on the use of fixed-term contracts, a major cause of job insecurity for staff.

Like the USyd log of claims, the Union is also aiming to secure protections for trans and First Nations staff, including 30 days of gender affirmation leave and cultural safety training for all staff.

Herrera said the agreement reflects the interests of staff: “Staff from across the university have been active in putting together the claims they want to fight for. It’s clear, staff want to transform this university to one that all staff and workers deserve.”

Fair Work takes UniMelb to court

Ellie Stephenson reports.

The University of Melbourne faced the Federal Court today as the Fair Work Ombudsman seeks penalties from the institution for two breaches of the Fair Work Act.

The breaches allegedly occurred when the University threatened two employees to deter them from claiming for work outside contracted hours. The regulator also alleges that the University took adverse action against one of the employees by refusing to give her further teaching work after she made a complaint.

Under the Fair Work Act (2009), it is unlawful for employers to take adverse action against people for exercising their workplace rights or attempt to coerce them to not access workplace rights. The maximum penalty for a breach of these laws is $66,600. Along with penalties, the Ombudsman is seeking for the University to compensate the two employees.

Underlying the breaches is the institutionalisation of casualisation, with both academics affected having been employed in a series of short term casual contracts. These contracts stipulated a set number of ‘anticipated hours’ each week. The coercion allegedly occurred after the academics attempted to claim for hours they had worked beyond the anticipated hours.

A media release from the Fair Work Ombudsman alleges that one of the academics was told by her supervisor words to the effect of “if you claim outside your contracted hours, don’t expect work next year”.

This coercion prevented the two employees from accessing the workplace right to be paid for the extra hours they worked.

The University of Melbourne is also being investigated by the Ombudsman for underpayment of its casual employees.

The Ombudsman, Sandra Parker, placed the breaches in the context of broader problems with the treatment of casual academics in the tertiary education sector.

“We are currently investigating a range of underpayment issues in the universities sector, including failures to pay casual academics for all hours worked,” she said.

“Employers should have proactive measures in place to ensure they are meeting workplace laws. If employers become aware of concerns their employees may be being underpaid, the only appropriate response is to check that they are paying their employees correctly and promptly rectify any compliance issues discovered.”

Fed Uni reinstates arts degree

Carmeli Argana reports.

Federation University has reversed its decision to scrap its Bachelor of Arts degree after facing sustained criticism from the university community.

The initial decision to discontinue Federation’s arts course was announced last week after failing to consult with staff and the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), as well as the broader community.

“We have listened to staff and the community, and have made the decision that the Bachelor of Arts (BA) program will continue in 2023,” said Acting ViceChancellor and President Liam Sloan in a statement this morning.

“We will review the BA to ensure it is fit for purpose to be delivered as part of our Australian first co-operative education model, for regional students wanting a head start on a successful career and for regional employers wanting graduates primed for the workplace,” Sloan said.

The NTEU praised the University’s reversal of the cut and called it a “major victory” for staff and students.

“This major union win shows what can be achieved when we stand up to bad decisions from rogue Vice-Chancellors,” said NTEU Federation University Branch President Mathew Abbott.

“It’s a huge victory for regional students and university staff who deserve access to an arts program without having to leave their communities and move to metropolitan areas,” Abbott said.

The continuation of the BA program will also save multiple jobs across the faculty, but many staff jobs remain at risk after a major operational restructure announced last year that will see the University’s six academic schools replaced by three new ‘Interdisciplinary Employment and Start-Up Centres’.

“Vice-Chancellors have been put on notice: we will fight and win when jobs and communities’ access to higher education are under threat,” said NTEU Victorian Division Assistant Secretary Sarah Roberts.

“Arts graduates make society stronger. Universities must factor the cost of running an arts program into all business decisions,” Roberts said.

This comes in the context of sectorwide attacks on the arts and humanities from the federal government and university management, including fee hikes under the Job Ready Graduates Package.

Similar controversial operational restructuring programs have also been implemented at the University of Sydney and the University of NSW.